Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure (review)

Murphy and Blank present a well-balanced introduction to the scientific, medical, and social history of the disease that has been a verified torment all the way back to Homo erectus. As humans domesticated animals and began to live in more dense population groups, conditions for the spread of tuberculosis increased, while the abilities of physicians to treat or cure it most certainly did not. As scientists floundered their way toward a modern understanding of the disease (especially through the work of Robert Koch and Herman Biggs), sufferers grasped at treatments that offered hope, from patent medicines and blood letting, to the generally benign regimens at mountain sanatoriums. Reactions to the victims themselves ranged from romanticizing the disease to deporting victims out of the country. The authors make condensing and organizing copious amounts of information seem effortless, and the personal stories and wealth of photographs help put a human face to the epidemic. An annotated bibliography and source notes are included and the bound book will also have an index; pronunciations are featured within the text. Murphy's acclaimed An American Plague (BCCB 6/03), on the yellow fever scourge of 1793, ended on an eerily pessimistic note, and his current examination of tuberculosis isn't much cheerier, with the ascent of drug resistant strains of the disease, the decrease of public health budgeting, and the ease of spreading any kind of contagion around our shrinking global village. For middle-school students who will one day manage disease control, though, it's not too soon to start thinking about the issues.